Culture minister fails to respond to playwriting report

12 April 2013

More than sixty of the UK's best-known theatrical luminaries - including Sir Tom Stoppard, Caryl Churchill, Mike Leigh and the incoming artistic director of the Royal Court Theatre Vicky Featherstone - have signed an open letter to Culture Minister Ed Vaizey (pictured), urging him to take seriously a recent report into the threat to new British playwriting posed by the government's latest round of spending cuts.

The report was sent to Ed Vaizey's office on 12 February, but its authors have yet to receive a response.

The independent report, In Battalions, researched and written by playwright Fin Kennedy with support from Oxford University's Helen Campbell Pickford, drew on data from surveys sent to theatres across the country. The results showed venues having to cancel productions, produce fewer new plays, commission fewer writers, and cancel a whole host of creative research and development.

The letter and press release are downloadable as pdfs, the letter here and the press release here.